The Bronze Bow

notesThe Bronze Bow belongs to the genre of narrative literature called historical fiction.

Five Features of Historical Fiction:• Setting – actual historical time

period and place • Characters – may be actual

historical figures • Events – include actual historical

events • Problems – realistic to a certain time

period and location • Dialogue – mimics the actual pattern

of speech in a given place and time

Literary Termsin The Bronze Bow

• Symbolism - The use in literature of an object to represent something else. The object usually carries both a figurative and literal meaning. In general, a symbol is a concrete thing that stands for an abstract idea. (i.e. a flag represents the ideals of a nation, patriotism, etc.)

• Allusion –a reference within a text to another piece of literature

• Foreshadowing – hints within the text of events that will take place in later in the story.

• Metaphors – a comparison between two unlike things that does not use “like” or “as”

• Similes – a comparison between two unlike things that uses “like” or “as”

To understand the historical setting

of The Bronze Bow, we must start at the very, very beginning…

• The Fall. At first, Adam and Eve live perfectly with God in the Garden of Eden. They sin and fall away from Him.After that, God’s people are separated from Him because of their sin.

• Abraham – God has a plan to restore His people!

Genesis12:1-4

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you….So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.

Genesis 15:5-6

God says to Abraham, “‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them…So shall your offspring be.’ And [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

God’s plan to restore His people was passed down

through Abraham’s descendents

(just as God had promised).

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob a.k.a. Israel

12 sons (12 tribes of Israel)

One of those 12 sons was Joseph.

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt.

What happened to Joseph???

God is always faithful to His people – especially when it seems that all is lost.

He was faithful to Joseph.

Joseph miraculously found favor with the Egyptian king, rose to power in Egypt, and was able to provide for his father and brothers when there was a famine in their land.

Thus, the 12 tribes of Israel came to live happily in Egypt.

Until……

“During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

WHAT NOW??!?

But, God is always faithful to His people – especially when it seems that all is lost.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with

Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.God saw the people of Israel –

and God knew.” Exodus 2:23-25

God had a plan to restore His people.

He called a man named Moses to lead His people back to Canaan (the land He had given Abraham).

• God said to Moses: “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

• Moses replied: Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

• God said: “But I will be with you…”

Exodus 3:10-12

EGYPT

CANAAN

40 years later, God’s people are back

home in Canaan.

• In the generations and generations that followed, even after everything that God had done for them, God’s people were still rebellious. They forgot what God had done for them, and they endured various troubles as a result.

• Foreign countries repeatedly conquered them and gained control of their land. At one point they were all taken as prisoners to Babylon. They were ruled by wise kings (like King David) and by evil kings, by foreign lands and by their own people.

Meanwhile….

God promises all along to send a Savior, a Messiah (an “anointed one”).

God’s people expect Him to fulfill His promise to them.

• “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon hisshoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end…The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

Isaiah 9:6-7

• “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…”

Isaiah 61:1-2

(But remember, by this point in the story, we certainly know that God is always faithful to His people – especially when it seems that all is lost.)

In 63 BC, hundreds and hundreds of years after God’s people returned to Canaan from Egypt, a powerful foreign nation conquered Jerusalem and took control of Israel.

That nation was called Rome.

Israel under Roman control…

The events of The Bronze Bow unfold among these Israelites, the people of God.

Downtrodden and oppressed by the Romans, these people cling to prophecies preserved by their forefathers of a Messiah, a great deliverer, who will free them from the ruthless oppression of the tyrannical Romans and deliver the Kingdom of Israel back into the hands of a good ruler somewhat like King David.

Even as all Israelites await this event, factions abound among them.

●Some believe that their God Jehovah will deliver them through peaceful means and willingly bow the knee to their oppressors.

● Others flout the Roman rulers and covertly organize themselves into military platoons, preparing for a day when they will take Jerusalem back by force like the famed Maccabees.

Into this world comes the humble carpenter Jesus of Nazareth. The historic ramifications of His life lend deep significance to the events of The Bronze Bow.